China's economic growth slowing

BEIJING - China's economic growth slowed in the final quarter of 2011 to its lowest rate in 2½ years as U.S. and European consumer demand plunged and Beijing fought inflation.

The world's second-largest economy after the U.S. grew by 8.9 percent in the three months ending in December. It was the slowest expansion since the second quarter of 2009, when the economy grew 7.9 percent.

For the full year, the economy grew 9.2 percent, down from 2010's blistering 10.3 percent after communist leaders tightened lending and investment curbs.

Also in 2011, China's urban population exceeded the number of rural dwellers for the first time, rising to 51.3 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people, the government said.